Beef rule headache for North farm shop.

Byline: By Anna Lognonne

The lifting of the British beef ban may have been celebrated by most of the UK's beef farmers but it provided a major headache for the Blagdon Farm Estate Shop, Northumberland.

This was because one of the provisions for the lifting of the ban on May 3 was the re-categorisation of bovine vertebral column from animals aged over 24 months, instead of over 30 months, as Specified Risk Material.

And because the Blagdon Farm Shop only sells meat from traditional British breeds, such as Belted Galloways, Red Polls and Welsh Blacks, that require longer to reach maturity, they suddenly discovered they could no longer cut up the whole carcases at their butcher's shop without a special licence.

However Hexham MP Peter Atkinson took up their cause and the matter has been sorted, although farm shop manager Jo Celerier said they have had to go to a lot of extra expense ( about pounds 90 a beast ( to ensure that they can continue to provide well hung beef from traditional beef breeds, which is what their customers want to buy.

The first Ms Celerier heard about the new regulations was when one of the Belted Galloways she sent to the local abattoir for slaughter came back already cut up and in vacuum packs, instead of as a whole carcase, ready for hanging for 28 days at the farm's butchery.

When she contacted the abattoir they said they had just been told they could no longer release whole carcases from animals aged over 24 months because the vertebral column was now classed as specified risk material and had to be removed at either a cutting plant or an authorised and registered butcher's shop.

Jo spent the next few weeks wading through red tape and bureaucracy to ensure the beef she sold in her shop after the lifting of the beef ban was of the same quality as that before the ban was lifted. All of the beef sold in the shop is from the Blagdon farm's herds of Belted Galloways or Red Polls, and if extra cattle are needed they are sourced from other traditional beef herds in Northumberland that are well known to Ms Celerier.

Ms Celerier said: "One day the Government was telling us the beef we sold was absolutely fine and the next day we were being told that we could not hang and cut up the carcases ourselves because the vertebral column was now classified as specified risk material. " Ms Celerier has now received a special licence for the Blagdon Farm Shop so that the abattoir can send them the full carcases. Hexham MP Peter Atkinson has received a letter from Defra minister Ben Bradshaw on the matter.

In the letter, Mr Bradshaw said efforts were being made to reinstate the 30-month limit, but in the meantime butchers dealing with vertebral column from animal aged between 24 and 30 months could apply for a special licence and abattoirs that slaughter these older animals could apply for a licence to collect and dispose of the vertebral column from their client's cattle.